Pie Entrepreneur Faces Uphill Fight

No one said baking a pie was simple.

Baking thousands of them to sell in grocery stores and gas stations throughout the Southeast has proven to be a bigger challenge than Toby Simmons — the self-declared Charleston Pie Man — ever anticipated.

The Georgetown baker said his ambitious expansion plans are faltering in the face of several hurdles, including a $1,400 fine from the state labor regulators who found that Simmons did not pay employees on several occasions.

Of the 52 workers Simmons began training in the spring, most have left the business because he can't pay them. Simmons planned to use state workforce training money, which he said was promised to him but never came.

Officials at the Georgetown Workforce Center said they agreed only to help him organize a job fair in April.

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